The community of Los Cabos, at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja peninsula, has the peculiar aspect of being one of the country's most popular vacation destinations while at the same time betraying almost none of the stylistic or cultural attributes that might be thought of as Mexican. First-time visitors who go expecting to find those iconic emblems of Mexico—cobblestone plazas surrounded by picturesque old churches, their bells pealing through village streets lined with cafés, cantinas and artisans' workshops—are surprised to discover a long strand of low-slung, high-end beachfront resorts and developments lacking any kind of real municipal core: a luxurious haven for those who prefer whale-watching, snorkeling and turning in early to antiquing, sightseeing and hitting the town.

One of these resorts, Esperanza, opened in 2002 and—thanks to architect Howard J. Backen's design, which successfully transferred his brand of subtle wine-country chic to the Mexican coast—helped set a new standard of quiet sophistication for the area. Not long ago the resort's owners came to Dallas-based architect and designer Jim Rimelspach, of Wilson Associates, and asked him to undertake a renovation that would maintain the spirit of Backen's original architecture while adding to it.

Rimelspach found Los Cabos's relative lack of design identity rather liberating. "There's a little bit of everything down there," he says. "It's just been over the last 10 or 15 years that it's become developed as a resort destination. So there's not any particular style."

Rimelspach's client, the Auberge group of resorts, gave him a good deal of latitude. "They didn't really suggest any specific design direction," says the architect. But they did, emphatically, direct him away from any kind of theme—the stylistic crutch of many a resort designer. Rimelspach, who, as Wilson Associates' design director, has overseen dozens of resort and hotel projects around the globe, was relieved. His goal from the outset, he says, was to keep the resort's 57 rooms and shared spaces "simple and sophisticated. We wanted to create something comfortable but not intimidating—like a home."

Well, maybe not just any old home. A home with its own palapa-style yoga studio; a home whose infinity pool's illusion of infinity is interrupted only by the swim-up bar; a home boasting a movable "treatment hut"—a sort of portable mini-spa that can be packed up and carted from, say, the gardens over to the beach for a personalized massage experience. But Rimelspach's point is well-taken. Los Cabos isn't about exoticism, or folksy rusticity, or any other theme that can be channeled into an instant, quick-dry design. It's all about comfort and relaxation.

Comfort, relaxation—and views. Gazing out at the Sea of Cortés (and at the famed rock formation known simply as El Arco) is the favored pastime here, and Rimelspach took that fact into consideration. "The whole resort has a real indoor-outdoor feeling," he says, and if that's true, then it's in large part due to the diligence with which he preserved one of Esperanza's greatest assets. Every guest room has a view of the surf and sand, but the design of the casitas, a collection of detached guesthouses providing an extra level of privacy, posits that there is no pleasurable human activity that can't be made more pleasurable with the sea as backdrop. Private decks feature hammocks for snoozing, hot tubs for soaking and banquettes for dining.

In the end, Jim Rimelspach refreshed Esperanza's original design, without deviating from it, and gave it new features as well: eight new suites (including two on the beach) and a spacious penthouse. For the kind of people who come to Los Cabos—celebrities, ber-executives and others in sore need of a refuge from daily life—the resort remains a favorite spot to decompress, away from everything, save for the seabirds and whales smart enough to have gotten in on the ground floor.

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